Disrupt the Bay targets pediatric cancers, childhood diseases

The 2nd annual “Disrupt the Bay’’ conference on August 6-7 is planned as a virtual experience for executives from Florida’s healthcare industry, local healthcare-related startups, and global business leaders.

“This year’s event will be completely digital,’’ says Organizer Stan Liberatore of Tampa, an entrepreneur with experience in the tech staffing industry. “I wanted to create synergy -- to disrupt healthcare.”

Liberatore, President of No Limit Technology and Chairman of the board of Save the Kids Foundation, teamed up with Mike DeLucia, President of PF1 Professional Services to design this year’s conference, which will be accessible on the events platform vSummits. 

Both recognized the disruption in healthcare and the acceleration of telehealth caused by the COVID-19 pandemic provided the perfect context for furthering innovation through shared ideas, concepts, and solutions, particularly surrounding pediatric medicine, childhood cancers, and other diseases that impact children and families.

Conference speakers include John Nosta, President of NostaLab, a healthcare “innovation think tank,” Scott Arnold, Executive VP and CIO at Tampa General Hospital, and panelists from Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, Moffitt Cancer Center, Advent Health, Baycare Health, HCA Healthcare, Memorial Healthcare, and Jackson Health.

Disruptors and innovators featured include Immertec, PathO3gen Solutions, Blue Halo BioMedical, Cope Notes, and Nurotech.

“I get a lot out of helping this cause. I have three amazing boys and I’d sure want them to have a better solution than what there is now,” says Liberatore. “There have only been four medications over the last 25 years geared toward pediatric cancer. I do know that this is broken and needs to be fixed. Anything for the kids! And I can tell you, it’s a great feeling to hand over a boatload of money to a good cause. We are creating a synergy toward hospitals and a fundraising mechanism to fund this cause.”

Key sponsors of the conference include No Limit Technology, Omni Public, Abacode, Sparxoo, ActSoft, MTD Marketing, Florida Blue, and 83 Degrees Media.

All proceeds of Disrupt the Bay will go to organizations accelerating research for pediatric cancer treatments.

For more information, visit the Disrupt the Bay website.
 
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Read more articles by Diane Egner.

Diane Egner is a community leader and award-winning journalist with more than four decades of experience reporting and writing about the Tampa Bay Area of Florida. She serves on the boards of the University of South Florida Zimmerman School of Advertising & Mass Communications Advisory Council, The Institute for Research in Art (Graphicstudio, the Contemporary Art Museum, and USF’s Public Art Program) Community Advisory Council, Sing Out and Read, and StageWorks Theatre Advisory Council. She also is a member of Leadership Florida and the Athena Society. A graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BA in journalism, she won the top statewide award for editorial writing from the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors while at The Tampa Tribune and received special recognition by the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists for creative work as Content Director at WUSF Public Media. Past accomplishments and community service include leadership positions with Tampa Tiger Bay Club, USF Women in Leadership & Philanthropy (WLP), Alpha House of Tampa Bay, Awesome Tampa Bay, Florida Kinship Center, AIA Tampa Bay, Powerstories, Arts Council of Hillsborough County, and the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. Diane and her husband, Sandy Rief, live in Tampa.